I would do exactly the samething. When pre-releasing an early product which is what tesla is doing with model X - it's looking for people they can trust to provide not just a great car but really the first set of product testers. It's the best way to build a new product. Find devoted customers and work with them to build a great product for them. Now if one of those customers decides to turn this into negative press, they need to be fired because they are not the customer that will make such a process work. Buying a model X at this stage is more like paying to get the car early and be a QA team member. The perk, is you get to play with the new and shiny first.
Keep in mind at this stage the guy got his 5k refund and just lost his place in line. A real first world crisis...
No, but you can be selective about which customers and this was not a 100k purchase this was a 5k deposit... Really though my point is nothing to do with telsa. My point was you need to fire customers sometimes and it's a difficult balance. In pre release phase of a product it is an acceptable approach.
Not to pick on you, but it looks as if I can go to Tesla's website, fill out a short form to reserve a Model X, and click on a Visa button to give them a $5K deposit. I don't see anything on there about being a product tester or working with Tesla to build a great product or being fired as a customer if I don't keep my mouth shut about my experiences.
Of course a beta program is a different situation. When I've been a beta tester for various products, I expect them to be buggy (and typically have had to sign NDAs or at least have an implicit agreement not to talk publicly about my experiences).
There were car companies which didn't have show rooms and test drives. You would simply be contacted by a concierge and offered the opportunity to buy one.
People selling things can be as exclusive as they want, and sometimes exclusivity means excluding people.
"I heard from our phone conversation that you feel that my post, “Dear @ElonMusk: You should be ashamed of yourself”, was a personal attack on you. I also hear that you are not comfortable having me own a Tesla car and have cancelled my order for a Tesla Model X."
The thing that jumps out at me is "you are not comfortable having me own a Tesla". There certainly is no concrete indication on whether that's a lifetime ban or what since it's a paraphrase of a conversation we didn't get to hear.
"Find devoted customers and work with them to build a great product for them."
It's clear from his posts that he was a devoted customer (his recent post even praises Telsa the company). That doesn't make the disappointment in the how the event was run any less. They invited those devoted customers to an event, and then ran it poorly. Someone calling Tesla out on that, and pointing out that Tesla is treating those devoted customers in a negative way could be handled in a less heavy handed fashion.
Keep in mind at this stage the guy got his 5k refund and just lost his place in line. A real first world crisis...